TMC is an independent, primarily volunteer organization that relies on ad revenue to cover its operating costs. Please consider whitelisting TMC on your ad blocker and becoming a Supporting Member. For more info: Support TMC

Why I am invested in Tesla Motors

How about starting a thread where we all talk about the reasons we started investing in Tesla Motors? For those who are down on the stock being down maybe we can remind each other why we are here.

For me it boils down to this

1) Not only does Tesla have a difficult to replicate battery pack they have what is probably, by far, the cheapest battery pack available to any manufacturer. It will not be easy for the other manufacturers to catch up. Furthermore there battery pack has the longest useful life improving resale value vs. other electric cars. There are a lot of people selling the stock short that don't understand this.

2) Tesla has the Supercharger network. No one has started building similar infrastructure. That is because no one else has a car that can take advantage of said infrastructure. I spoke with someone waiting to invest in Tesla "on a dip" and he didn't even know about the Supercharger network.

3) 99% of Tesla owners are fully satisfied as per Consumer Reports. Look on any forum of Model S owners and they will admit they don't enjoy driving their ICE cars anymore, if they do.

4) As long as fuel stays where it is anyone who puts 12,000 miles on their car every year has significant TCO savings.

5) Half my office wants a Gen III. People who are not in the luxury market right now will buy a Gen III Tesla when it is available. One can easily justify the premium by subtracting fuel costs and then relish the time not spent stopping for gas or getting the oil changed or brakes fixed.

6) The sooner we get off of oil the better, either to help the planet or to improve the geopolitical structure of the world. If I invest in TSLA and never sell my shares this reduces supply of the shares which helps keep the stock price up which in turn helps Tesla raise mare capital to invest into reaching their goals sooner.

7) One other thing I thought of I find strange. There are lots of articles that state as fact things like demand for the Model S is declining or that Model S drivers need to own multiple cars as the Model S is supposedly not a daily driver. Obviously people are still being misled and that is probably hurting the stock price. The stock is already high. How high will it go when people realize the truth?

8) Gas stations are dirty and gross, why would I ever want to go to one if I didn't have to.

For me it boils down to a few simple things. Tesla is about 10 years ahead of the rest of the industry, and the rest of the industry doesn't seem to even realize that they need to catch up.
Electric cars are the future. There's no denying that for many many reasons, and NOBODY else makes an electric car capable of replacing an ICE car. Every new "extended range electric" (translated to hybrid) the major automakers make, and every new electric with a useless range, reminds me of how no other car manufacturer "gets it". Sure there's always risk in investing in what's new, but Tesla has shown repeatedly that they can overcome all of that. While Tesla is still the new kid in the auto industry, the number of cars they've sold, the number of service centres and superchargers they've built, and the financial numbers they've reported, all show that this "new" company isn't exactly small anymore, and is no longer that big a risk.

I agree with uselesslogin and green1 on essential points. Tesla has unique advantages and a business model that is working. I am long TSLA for those reasons.

Questions, however:

1) Can Tesla scale up its advantages in battery tech to make the Gigafactory achieve a cost revolution? I would not bet against Elon in any project he really cares about and thinks possible to achieve, but this is the very long pole in the GenIII plan.

2) How solid is the Model S? Customers are happy while the cars are under warranty, but we hear of a lot of battery packs, drive trains, and door handles being replaced among current owners. Warranty costs and repair costs to owners are something to keep an eye on.

2) How solid is the Model S? Customers are happy while the cars are under warranty, but we hear of a lot of battery packs, drive trains, and door handles being replaced among current owners. Warranty costs and repair costs to owners are something to keep an eye on.

Click to expand...

Anecdotal forum posts seem to indicate they have been able to fix most problems and put those fixes into production. They have a unique advantage of being able to easily replace the entire drivetrain. Otherwise the best source for hard data on this front is the Consumer Reports reliability survey which I think comes out at the end of October. They did OK last year but I am hoping that they will do better as they learn how to make better cars. That brings to mind number 9 on my list. The current Model S is the second worst car Tesla will ever make.

I am in Tesla because it's a company that is doing the right thing with the goal of improving people's lives/future. The money gets to our heads and what we need to realize is the rewards/gains we get is a byproduct of a company achieving its mission. In Tesla's case it's to advance sustainable transport. I'm going to put my capital to use so that they can use it to fight the good fight. Anybody we mow down on the way deserves to get their money redistributed to investors such as us because we're deploying our capital to a solution and not a band-aid.

I only invest in companies I believe in with good management/the right leaders. Tesla is tackling head-on something that we all need to battle. Global Warming. I know it's not going to solve the problem or put a dent in it (yet), but at least the conversation gets going and an alternative is shown and it can make others in the industry take notice. We can't simply be satisfied with the status quo. We need to stop relying on oil, fight climate change, push the limits of alternative energies (at the very least make it useful... remember there's the production and consumption).

How about starting a thread where we all talk about the reasons we started investing in Tesla Motors? For those who are down on the stock being down maybe we can remind each other why we are here.

For me it boils down to this

1) Not only does Tesla have a difficult to replicate battery pack they have what is probably, by far, the cheapest battery pack available to any manufacturer. It will not be easy for the other manufacturers to catch up. Furthermore there battery pack has the longest useful life improving resale value vs. other electric cars. There are a lot of people selling the stock short that don't understand this.

2) Tesla has the Supercharger network. No one has started building similar infrastructure. That is because no one else has a car that can take advantage of said infrastructure. I spoke with someone waiting to invest in Tesla "on a dip" and he didn't even know about the Supercharger network.

3) 99% of Tesla owners are fully satisfied as per Consumer Reports. Look on any forum of Model S owners and they will admit they don't enjoy driving their ICE cars anymore, if they do.

4) As long as fuel stays where it is anyone who puts 12,000 miles on their car every year has significant TCO savings.

5) Half my office wants a Gen III. People who are not in the luxury market right now will buy a Gen III Tesla when it is available. One can easily justify the premium by subtracting fuel costs and then relish the time not spent stopping for gas or getting the oil changed or brakes fixed.

6) The sooner we get off of oil the better, either to help the planet or to improve the geopolitical structure of the world. If I invest in TSLA and never sell my shares this reduces supply of the shares which helps keep the stock price up which in turn helps Tesla raise mare capital to invest into reaching their goals sooner.

7) One other thing I thought of I find strange. There are lots of articles that state as fact things like demand for the Model S is declining or that Model S drivers need to own multiple cars as the Model S is supposedly not a daily driver. Obviously people are still being misled and that is probably hurting the stock price. The stock is already high. How high will it go when people realize the truth?

8) Gas stations are dirty and gross, why would I ever want to go to one if I didn't have to.

Click to expand...

I'm in it for all the same reasons.

Comment on your #7: I own only one car. My Model S serves all my driving needs which includes many long distances. Everytime I drive south to Los Angeles, I see more and more Model S. Yesterday, I lost count around 20 in only a few hours!

Comment on your #8: Gas stations are where you find the weirdest people. A friend of mine is a criminal prosecutor from Los Angeles. He says "gas stations are very dangerous, most all violent crime happens in a gas station." I agree, just to never visit a gas station is reason enough to own an S!

The fundamental reason I got, and remained, into TSLA is Elon Musk. I don't mean it as a glib response; it was this article about Elon Musk and Tesla that made me buy my first TSLA shares. In time, and after finding this forum, I became convinced by all the same reasons that others already mentioned that I should go all in (which is what I did, with stock, at the end of 2012.)

For me, it's all about Elon Musk, just like Apple was all about Steve Jobs.

thanks so much for providing the link to that article -- i've been following tesla since the fall of 2012 and have done an extensive amount of reading on tesla, but i still wasn't aware of some of the details from that story (including the electric smart car episode). it was pretty incredible to read the article knowing what we know today.

Meta

Do you value your experience at TMC? Consider becoming a Supporting Member of Tesla Motors Club. As a thank you for your contribution, you'll get nearly no ads in the Community and Groups sections. Additional perks are available depending on the level of contribution. Please visit the Account Upgrades page for more details.